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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Trial began Wednesday for Christopher Wayne Young, who is accused of trying to drive his car off a cliff with his three children inside.
Young, 36, pleaded not guilty in August in 4th District Court to three counts of attempted aggravated murder and three counts of child abuse or neglect.
He is accused of trying to drive off a cliff near Point of the Mountain on April 18.
On Tuesday, both prosecutors and defense lawyers told Judge Steven Hansen they thought it would be useful to have jurors travel to and look at the site.
"We are not going to hold court on that mountain. I would suggest the bailiff to take the jury," Hansen said, adding it is the bailiff's job "to keep everybody away from the jurors, even the lawyers."
Hansen decided that rather than have the jury taken to the spot where police found Young's car, a bailiff would drive the jurors along the frontage road near Point of the Mountain to view the area.
"I think driving on that road would be acceptable," said Donna Kelly, a deputy attorney for Utah County.
At a preliminary hearing in August, Young's wife Adella testified that her husband said he was taking their children -- a 2-year-old and 4-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy -- to the park before dinner. But then he called and said he wasn't coming back with the kids.
Police said Young was headed north on Interstate 15 near Lehi when his car ran off the road and down an embankment. The vehicle appeared to have gotten stuck temporarily in a barbed-wire fence and the uneven terrain of the embankment, Provo police officer Daniel Dove testified. Young got the vehicle moving and then drove across an alfalfa field to a higher point, where he stopped his car about 30 feet from a cliff, Dove said.
Adella Young said her husband then called her back, and let her talk to her children.
"Mommy please come help us," Adella Young testified her 4-year-old daughter said on the phone. "She said that daddy was going to take her to heaven and they were going to go meet Jesus."
Lehi police officer Alma Owens was sent to Point of the Mountain and Young handed over the car keys to the officer. Adella Young picked up the children, and her husband was arrested.
The children were not injured, but they were very frightened, said medical technician Tammy Brems who was at the scene.
------ Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldextra.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)